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ADOLPH  SUTRO'S 


LETTER 


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To  the  Regents  of  the  University 
of  California 


AND   TO   THE 


Committee  of  Affiliated  Colleges 


ON    THE 


SELECTION     OF     A    SITE 


FOR    THE 


Affiliated  Colleges 


Sax   Francisco,   September  5th,    1895. 

To  the  Regents  of  the  University  of  California,  and 
to  the  Co7nrnittee  on  the  Selection  of  a  Site  for  the 
Affiliated  Colleges. 

Gentlemen: — It  is  fit  and  proper  that  at  this 
time  I  should  say  a  few  words  in  regard  to  the  selection 
of  the  site  for  the  Affiliated  Colleges  of  the  University 
of  California. 

I  have  offered  to  the  Committee  one-half  of  the 
original  site,  selected  by  me  several  years  ago  for  the 
Sutro  Library,  consisting  of  26.369  acres ;  that  is  1 3.042 
acres  for  the  College,  and  13.327  acres  for  the  Library. 

In  making  this  selection  I  wras  guided  by  the  fol- 
lowing considerations: 

First. — This  spot  is  nearly  the  geographical  center 
of  the  City  and  County  of  San  Francisco,  and,  as  a 
great  public  Library  is  intended  not  only  for  the  present 
generation  but  for  many  generations  to  come,  we  should 
give  due  weight  to  the  probable  future  center  of 
population. 

Second: — This  site  is  located  within  two  blocks 
south  of  and  near  the  entrance  of  Golden  Gate  Park 
proper,  on  a  rising  eminence,  with  a  magnificent  out- 
look over  Park,  Ocean,  Golden  Gate,  the  shores  of 
Marin  County  and  the  hills  of  Contra  Costa.  Buildings 
erected  on  this  spot,  will  present  a  prominent  land-mark 

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and  may  be  seen  not  only  by  visitors  to  Golden  Gate 
Park  but  also  from  all  parts  of  the  western  half  of 
the  City. 

Third. — The  front  part  of  this  tract,  forms  an 
almost  level  plateau,  with  hills  rising  behind  planted 
with  a  forest  of  pines,  cypresses  and  acacias,  which  will 
form  a  beautiful  dark  background  for,  and  in  contrast 
to  the  buildings  erected  thereon ;  at  the  same  time 
making  it  possible  to  have  lovely  terraced  walks  under 
the  trees  for  the  benefit  of  students  and  visitors. 

Fourth. — There  are  but  three  streets,  south  of 
Golden  Gate  Park,  running  east  and  west,  which  can 
be  made  available  for  street  car  traffic  to  the  ocean,  H, 
I  and  J  Streets.  South  of  these  Mount  Parnassus  and 
a  range  of  hills  rise  to  a  height  of  900  feet  for  a  length 
of  three  miles,  inaccessible  for  railroads,  until  you  reach 
the  Industrial  School  and  the  Ocean  Boulevard.  For 
this  reason,  the  three  streets,  between  the  Park  and 
the  Library  site  will  be  sure  to  be  utilized  for  electric 
or  other  roads,  notwithstanding  the  effort  now  being 
made  to  have  it  appear  that  there  will  be  no  street  car 
communications  and  service  in  that  neighborhood. 

Fifth. — This  locality,  forming  a  recess  in  the  hills, 
is  much  sheltered  from  the  westerly  wTinds  and  amongst 
the  trees  the  climate  resembles  that  of  the  warm  foot- 
hills of  the  Coast  Range. 

Sixth. — It  is  but  fifteen  minutes  ride  from  the  New 
City  Hall,  which  is  now  considered  a  central  point; 
the  time  will  come,  however,  when  this  College  site 
will  be  the  center  of  population.     The  growth  of  the 


city  is  directly  on  this  line,  and  the  country  to  the  west 
thereof,  with  its  pure  ocean  air,  diminished  quantity  of 
smoke,  dust  and  bacteria,  will  rapidly  build  up. 

Seventh, — Here  drudgery  of  student  life  is  relieved 
by  esthetic  surroundings,  the  grandeur  of  nature  is  in- 
spiring and  spurs  the  scholar  to  higher  achievements. 

Eighth. — One  of  the  great  inducements  for  the 
selection  of  this  particular  tract  as  a  Library. site  wTas 
on  account  of  its  topography.  On  both  the  east  and 
west  ends,  almost  to  the  line  of  J  Street  (which  should 
hereafter  be  known  as  "Parnassus  Avenue")  rising  hills 
project  that  form  an  almost  perfect  protection  against 
any  general  conflagration  reaching  this  spot.  Many 
valuable  libraries  in  ancient  and  modern  times  have 
been  destroyed  by  fire,  and  immunity  therefrom  should 
be  one  of  the  first  considerations. 

These  are  some  of  the  reasons  that  caused  me  to 
select  this  particular  spot  for  a  Library  site.  In  offer- 
ing one-half  of  the  site  for  the  Affiliated  College 
building,  the  same  reasoning  was  followed;  for  the 
same  advantages  that  apply  to  a  Library  site,  and  are 
desirable  for  its  purposes  and  visitors,  also  apply  to  a 
large  extent,  to  a  College  site. 

Car  fares  throughout  the  city,  are  now,  and  probably 
never  again  will  be  more  than  five  cents,  and  an  addi- 
tional five  or  ten  minutes  on  the  cars,  going  to  or  coming 
from  the  College,  or  to  and  from  Hospitals,  in  a  popu- 
lous city,  can  be  of  but  little  consequence,  especially  as 
the  location  of  these  institutions  may,  as  the  city  grows, 
be  changed. 


Now  please  permit  me  to  say  a  few  words  as  to  the 
special  value  of  the  Sutro  Library  and  the  general  value 
of  libraries  to  Colleges. 

The  Sutro  Library  consists  at  present  of  about 
200,000  volumes,  but  counting  all  titles  is  probably 
nearer  300,000. 

To  give  some  idea  of  its  value,  I  will  quote  what 
Andrew  J.  White,  formerly  President  of  Cornell  Uni- 
versity, afterwards  United  States  Minister  to  Berlin  and 
to  St.  Petersburg,  one  of  the  foremost  scholars  in  the 
United  States,  said  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley, 
editor  of  the  Christian  Advocate,  in  which  paper  it  was 
printed,  in  1892  : 

"  I  must  confess  that  of  all  the  amazing  things  on  the 
Pacific  Coast — and  I  encountered  surprise  after  surprise — the 
most  unexpected  was  the  discovery  of  the  Sutro  Library,  and 
of  the  fact  that  so  few  people  in  California  knew  anything 
about  it. 

Mr.  Adolph  Sutro  is  one  of  the  most  wealthy  men  upon  the 
Pacific  Coast,  well-known  for  the  public  spirit  he  has  shown  in 
his  great  mining  enterprises  and  for  his  beautiful  creations  at 
Sutro  Heights  and  elsewhere.  About  the  year  1883  he  began 
very  quietly  the  founding  of  a  library.  His  fundamental 
theory  is  worthy  of  notice.  He  saw  that  of  libraries  for  popular 
use  there  would  be  a  sufficiency — very  many  men  can  see  the 
necessity  of  these — he  therefore  determined  to  develope  a  library, 
which  while  it  should  be  useful  for  citizens  generally,  should  be 
especially  attractive  to  scholars  and  valuable  in  developing  the 
higher  thought  and  work  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  In  this  view  he 
bought  outright  several  European  Libraries,  each  of  great  im- 
portance in  some  special  department,  and  then  supplemented 
these  by  large  purchases  at  important  sales  in  Great  Britain 
and  on  the  Continent.  The  Library  of  the  Duke  of  Sunderland, 
the  great  collection  of  duplicates  belonging  to  the  Royal  Library 


at  Munich,  the  Dahlberg  and  Buxheim  libraries  were  among 
the  principal  sources  from  which  he  drew.  His  agents  abroad 
have  since  been  steadily  purchasing  under  the  advice  of  experts, 
whom  Mr.  Sutro  has  called  to  take  charge  of  his  books,  until  he 
has  now  accumulated  in  the  City  of  San  Francisco  about  two 
hundred  thousand  volumes — and  a  wonderful  collection  it  is. 
Every  branch  of  science,  literature  and  art  is  well  represented. 
Many  of  the  works  are  of  the  costliest.  Among  them  are 
numbers  of  rare  illuminated  manuscripts,  a  very  large  collection 
of  early  printed  works,  especially  of  the  Reformation  and  re- 
naissance periods,  with  over  thirty  thousand  volumes,  many  of 
them  exceedingly  costly,  dating  from  the  Civil  Wars  and 
Cromwellian  or  Commonwealth  periods  in  England. 

Looking  around  among  them,  I  passed  from  a  set  of  all  the 
folios  of  Shakespeare  to  Diurnal,  published  the  day  after  the 
execution  of  Charles  I,  and  then  to  a  bewildering  multitude  of 
other  things  of  intense  interest  to  the  historical  scholar.  Es- 
pecially curious  from  an  historical  point  of  view  is  a  collection 
which  Mr.  Sutro  has  made  in  Mexico,  which  will  prove  a  mine 
for  the  coming  investigator  of  Spanish-American  civilization. 
There  is  also  a  very  large  mass  of  Hebrew  manuscripts,  which 
will  evidently  some  day  reward  investigators  in  Semitic  history 
and  literature.  With  considerable  acquaintance  among  the 
libraries  of  the  United  States,  I  should  rank  this  one  already 
among  the  first  four  in  value,  and  it  is  rapidly  increasing.  It  is 
Mr.  Sutro's  purpose  to  erect  a  building  for  it  in  the  City  of  San 
Francisco  and  to  throw  it  open  to  the  public.  Being  so  near  to 
the  two  California  Universities  it  cannot  fail  to  be  of  immense 
value  to  them.  I  found  at  my  visit  that  some  of  the  professors 
and  students  were  already  beginning  to  use  it,  even  in  its 
present  unsuitable  quarters. 

Among  other  proposals  of  Mr.  Sutro  which  scholars  will 
appreciate  is  his  plan  of  issuing  bulletins  containing  the 
reports  of  the  most  valuable  investigations  made  by  scholars 
in  the  library.  This  cannot  fail  to  attract  numbers  of  young 
men  ambitious  of  distinction  to  the  neighboring  institutions  of 
learning." 


Professor  Jordan,  of  the  Stanford  University,  on 
his  first  visit  to  the  Sutro  Library  remarked: 

H  Had  I  known  that  such  a  library  existed  in  California,  I 
could  have  had  Professor  Burr,  of  Cornell,  come  to  Stanford 
University,  for  he  declined  a  call  on  account  of  the  supposed 
lack  on  this  coast  of  library  material,  for  his  special  investi- 
gations." 

Professor  Burr  was  thereupon  sent  for,  and  came 
to  San  Francisco ;  he  spent  the  three  days  he  was  here 
on  the  ladders  of  the  Sutro  Library,  and,  when  he  was 
through,  concluded  to  accept  the  professorship.  He 
returned  to  Cornell  with  the  intention  of  coming  here; 
but  the  Regents  of  that  place  brought  such  a  pressure 
to  bear  upon  him,  and  so  largely  increased  his  salary, 
that  he  finally  concluded  to  remain. 

Pertinent  to  the  above  is  the  following  extract  from 
Professor  Burr's  letter  to  Mr.  Sutro,  dated  Cornell, 
June  25th,  1892: 

"  *  *  *  No,  I  am  not  coming  to  California — at  least, 
not  at  present.  But  it  is  no  longer  for  want  of  books.  The 
Sutro  Library  removes  that  obstacle  entirely.  I  came  back 
from  California  wholly  prepared  to  accept  President  Jordan's 
offer.  But,  when  the  authorities  of  Cornell  not  only  met  the 
ultimatum  they  asked  me  to  make,  but  met  it  unanimously 
and  so  generously  that  I  could  not  doubt  the  heartiness  of  their 
action,  I  could  not  turn  my  back  on  my  old  home.  Here,  too, 
I  have  a  work,  and  one  very  dear  to  me. 

But,  believe  me,  I  shall  forget  neither  the  Sutro  Library 
nor  your  generous  hospitality  to  me  as  its  visitor.  There  is 
much  I  want  to  say  to  you  about  it.  My  enthusiasm  over  the 
remarkable  collection  you  have  brought  together  does  not  abate. 
It  is,  I  think,  beyond  all  comparison  the  best  collection  in 
America,  both  as  to  numbers  and  as  to  quality  of  the  books  of 
the  15th  century;  and  I  gravely  doubt  if  it  has  any  rival  this 


side  of  the  Atlantic  for  its  literature  of  the  16th  century.  Rare 
books  of  which  I  had  never  before  seen  a  copy  you  have  doubly, 
triply,  sometimes  quadruply,  on  your  shelves.  For  any  work 
I  may  have  to  do  in  the  contemporary  literature  of  these  critical 
centuries  of  the  Renaissance  and  the  Reformation,  there  is  no 
place  in  America — I  am  not  sure  if  any  in  Europe — to  which 
I  shall  so  surely  turn  as  to  the  Sutro  Library.  Nor  is  this  the 
only  field  in  which  I  noted  your  phenomenal  wealth.  In  travels 
of  every  age,  in  church  history,  canon  law,  and  theology,  in  the 
history  of  all  the  sciences,  especially  the  natural  sciences,  in 
curiosa  of  many  sorts,  your  shelves  are  a  Golconda  of  treasures. 
I  envy  the  scholars  who  are  to  help  you  exploit  them  and  the 
librarians  who  are  to  make  your  collections  complete.  *  *  * 
Again  let  me  thank  you  for  your  charming  hospitality  at  Sutro 
Heights  and  in  the  Sutro  Library.  Whether  or  not  I  ever 
become  a  Californian,  those  will  always  be  red-letter  days  in 
my  memory." 

I  give  these  quotations  in  order  to  show  in  what 
estimation  the  Sutro  Library  is  held  by  scholars. 

The  selection  of  the  books  was  made  at  a  favorable 
time,  under  fortunate  and  extraordinary  circumstances. 

The  Sunderland  Library  and  that  of  the  Duke  of 
Hamilton,  in  England,  the  Monastery  of  Buxheim 
Library  and  that  of  the  Duke  of  Dahlberg,  Germany, 
came  under  the  hammer  during  that  time,  and  large 
purchases  were  made  therefrom.  Then  there  was  the 
Royal  State  Library  at  Munich,  that  had  absorbed  the 
libraries  of  all  the  confiscated  monasteries  of  Bavaria, 
which,  besides  other  valuable  works,  furnished  for  our 
library  over  4,000  incunabula,  probably  the  best  col- 
lection in  existence. 

Then  there  is  the  Library  of  the  Secretary  of  the 
London  Chemical  Society,  the  collection  of  Parliament- 


ary  documents  and  proceedings  from  the  year  1,000  A. 
D.  to  this  day,  formerly  the  property  of  Lord  Macaulay, 
and  which  he  used  in  writing  his  history;  the  codified 
laws  of  England,  from  the  library  of  Lord  Cairns; 
medical,  botanical,  geological,  astronomical,  mathemati- 
cal, and  other  scientific  and  technical  collections;  a  col- 
lection of  20,000  pamphlets  of  the  Commonwealth 
times;  and  another  collection,  similar  in  numbers,  re- 
lating to  Mexico  and  its  history,  manuscripts  of  great 
variety  and  endless  value,  many  on  parchment,  in 
Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  French,  German,  English, 
Spanish  and  Arabian. 

All  this,  of  course,  forms  but  the  nucleus  of  a  great 
reference  library  for  the  sciences,  arts  and  mechanics. 
Science  advances  so  rapidly  that  only  the  latest  editions 
of  modern  books  should  be  purchased,  when  the  library 
is  actually  ready  to  be  opened,  and  that  is  a  mere  ques- 
tion of  dollars  and  cents,  for  an  order  for  all  modern 
books  can  be  placed  with  booksellers,  and  filled  within 
a  few  months.  So  it  is  with  scientific  periodicals  and 
papers  :  they  will  all  be  supplied  when  the  library  opens. 

As  to  the  general  value  of  such  a  library  as  an  ad- 
junct, or,  more  properly  speaking,  as  a  nucleus,  for  a 
college,  an  examination  of  the  great  European  centers 
of  learning  will  afford  the  best  illustration. 

Go  to  Oxford,  with  its  magnificent  Bodleian  Library, 
the  pride  of  England;  go  to  Cambridge  ;  go  to  London, 
Paris,  Berlin,  Vienna  and  St.  Petersburg;  go  to  Rome 
and  look  at  the  Vatican  Library;  go  to  our  own  Har- 
vard, Yale.  Cornell,  Princeton,  and  other  colleges;  go 


wherever  there   is  the   highest    intelligence,   learning, 

O  O  7  O  7 

advancement  in  science,  mechanics  and  general  know- 
ledge, and  you  will  find  the  finest  libraries. 

San  Francisco  and  California  may  well  feel  proud 
to  have  at  the  command  of  their  students  such  a 
library,  which  will  redound  more  to  the  credit  of  the 
State  than  anything  that  has  up  to  this  time  been 
accomplished  in  that  direction. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

ADOLPH   SUTRO. 


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